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Public facilities and the institutionswhich accompany them are at the coreof the present athletic system in France,despite the development of sports outsideof clubs and associations. Stadiums,swimming-pools, gyms or tenniscourts have thus followed the overalltrend of peripheral urbanization.The sports complex of Le Lac in thecenter of the Bordeaux urban area, is atypical case of the federative interventionof local communities which respectsthe diversity of social spaces andathletic sites.

Marc Falcoz, Pierre Chifflet

The Public Construction of Athletic Facilities

In half a century in France, athleticfacilities have moved from a conditionof scarcity of spaces to an abundanceof practice sites, from uniform to manifoldconceptions, from a single functionto a plurality of functions, andfrom a unity of construction to an economic,conceptual and social diversity.In the midst of this evolution, the normalizingintervention of the WelfareState has played a determining role,despite its ultimate, gradual disengagement.The variations that one cantrace seem to obey a logic which ismore political than social.

Antoine Haumont

Post-Modern Sports in American Cities

The coexistence of two distinct athleticdynamics, one which is banal and occurson the everyday level, « from below »,and one which is governed by mercantileinterests, « from above », heralds the arrivalof the post-modern era in sports. Asan example of this in the United States,witness the commercial evolution of theNew York Marathon, the media andfinancial saga of the Brooklyn Dodgersbaseball team, or the profits of the SuperBowl (the American football finals).On a less publicized level, the free individualpractice of sports is having avisible impact on American cities, fromthe ghetto playground to the horse-backriding club in an exclusive suburb. As forspectacular sports, they are becomingincreasingly independent of local contingencies.

Jean-Charles Basson, Andy Smith

Socialization through Sports : Back-handed and Opposing Views

The street sports that many young peopleparticipate in, apart from clubs or parallelto them, are perceived negatively bypublic authorities, which view them asa threat to their community actions.Yet their proliferation is governed byforms of organization and discipline thattheir followers impose on themselves.So the latter take issue with local authoritiesfor not recognizing them as fullfledgedpartners in the planning of cityactivities. This communication problembetween young people and institutionsposes the question of the relevance ofthe modes of public action on territorialpolicies, in a particularly acute way.

Pascal Chantelat, Michel Fodimbi, Jean Camy

Groups of Young Athletes in the City

The open-ended character of youthfulathletic gatherings goes hand in handwith the freedom of playing. The alternationbetween spontaneous games infront of the projects, and team excursionsfor games on a field outside theneighborhood creates a rhythm of achanging sociability, which cannot becontained or comprehended by localauthorities. For most young athletes, thediscipline of official sports in a club isnot incompatible with autonomous initiatives,outside the club. City policiesmust take account of this interminglingof practices which lie beyond any univocalor functional relation between usesand facilities.

Éric Adamkiewicz

Street-Side Athletics in Lyon

In Lyon, young skate-boarders and roller-skaters or -bladers fit in smoothlyinto the urban spaces where they gather.They often seek to attract the attentionof passersby with their stylistic flourishes.As for mountain-bikers, who aregenerally older, they choose non-urbanroutes. Sports for sports’sake bring togethersmall groups of street basket-ballplayers. However individualistic thesenew sports may be, they transform theuses of public space and develop a playfulvision of city life.

Anne-Marie Waser

From the Stadium to the City : The Reinvention of Running

Urban « joggings » free from any collectiveconstraints, is a phenomenonwhich is both spectacular and recent.Running through the streets in pursuitof physical well-being’runs’counter tostrict athletic rules. Racing on foot outsideof a stadium started out as a counter-culture practice, but it has become apart of the urban way of life whichaffects all ages and social groups. Theindividual cult of the healthy body andthe will to resist the negative physicaleffects of the city explain this passion.

Christian Pociello

The Project of a Sporting Adventure Site

A new realm of free and autonomoussports has been developing for the lasttwenty years on the margins of professionalsports. The desire city-dwellersfeel for adventure of the’back to nature’typeplays an important role in thisdevelopment. The concept of a « sportingadventure site », developed by ateam of researchers focusing on socialexperimentation, turns urban facilitiesinto places where one can prepare andtrain daily for various nature sports suchas mountain climbing or paragliding.The financial viability or return oninvestments of this type of facility is notimmediately apparent ; the resistance onthe part of athletic clubs has hinderedits experimental implementation.

Christine Dulac

Athletic Lobbies and Municipal Mandates in Grenoble

Grenoble, which was an Olympic Cityin 1968, initially promoted large-scaleathletic activities, before giving way tenyears later to pressure groups in favor ofélite sports which have greater commercialsignificance and media coverage.In recent years, the divergence betweenthe interests of public authoritiesand private investors, on the nationaland on the local level, has induced Grenoble’slocal government to return to abetter balance between a politics of prestigeand a politics of social action.

Edmond Preteceille

Disparities in Athletic Facilities in the Ile-de-France Region

Athletic facilities use up a good deal ofspace and funding, and their distributionwithin the urban area is uneven. Yetthe differences in socio-professionalstructure between municipal districts donot seem to have an effect on the levelof local athletic facilities. Former working-class suburbs undergoing a transformationinto the tertiary sector actuallyseem to be the best equipped locations,in quantitative terms. The result then isa growing disparity between the closesuburban area, which has adequatefacilities, and the extended suburbanarea, which does not, despite the paradoxicalfact that the demand there isgreater, for demographic reasons.

William Gasparini

Athletic Associations in Strasbourg’s Living Environment

There appears to be more activity involvingathletic associations in the peripheryof the Strasbourg urban area thanin its center, despite the presence of facilitiesand a level of use which are higherin the central municipal district. Recentperipheral urbanization has included thecreation of clubs, which are used andorganized mainly by a population ofmanagers and employees in the tertiarysector. Nonetheless, a popularlevel, traditionalsport such as football lives on inthe clubs of the former working class.Local social history explains the differencesin athletic practices from onemunicipal district to another, within agiven living environment.

Maxime Travert, Jean Griffet, Pierre Therme

Street Football, Stadium Football

Football runs through the city, both dueto the major club which it gives credibilityto, and through the little gamesthat take place spontaneously at the footof various buildings. Football as it isplayed by federations has its restrictedspaces, namely, stadiums, as well as predefinedtimes and hierarchies (ratings).In contrast, the neighborhood gameseeks out environments, takes place atany moment, creates its rules as it goesalong, and inverts roles. Yet both modelscome together in a shared passion forthe creativity and virtuosity of the game.The football spectator is the link betweenthese two universes which are thesame and different at the same time.

Pascal Duret, Patrick Mignon

Creating a Football Club in the Ile-de-France Region

The success of the Paris-Saint-Germainclub, the star of the capital, is a reflectionof the image of present-day Paris,a patchwork metropolis where tertiarysector jobs and managers predominate.The youthful fans of this club comefrom suburban housing projects, andgive vivid expression to how differentthey are from the life of a club whichhas become a capitalist company.Conversely, the rise of the Olympiqueclub of Noisy-le-Sec, a small suburbanclub, supports and illustrates popularethnic identity, with its values of mutualassistance and local solidarity. Twoclubs two social models ; on the onehand, the spectactular marketingconcern, and on the other, the ties ofsocial promotion.

Marie-Hélène Bacqué

The Stade de France in Saint-Denis

The recent creation of the Stade deFrance in Saint-Denis, a jewel of architecturein athletics, is a typical productof the meeting of the world of business,football, the State, and a graduallyreemerging industrial suburb.The Achilles heel of this major projectis the issue of the club that could supportthis facility after the World Cup.The financial profits and urban amenitiesthat the project is supposed tobring have yet to be seen. Its symbolicappropriation is still to come ; it willundoubtedly reveal the power struggleswaged over the great stadium.

Lionel Arnaud

Sports, a way to citizenship citizenship

In France and Great Britain, town councilsmanage sport activities for youngimmigrants. In France, they delegate thejob of organising them to sport unionsproducing a multicultural public. In GreatBritain, town councils negociate directlywith deputes of ethnic minorities.